The Outsiders Text Response
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The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, published by puffin books in 2001. Pony boy is the little brother of Soda and Darry. Pony, Soda and Darry live together in the house, that their parents left them when they died in a car crash. Darry is 19 and a big muscly man who works two jobs to support his two little brothers. Soda is 16 going on 17 and looks a lot like a Greek god; he works at a car yard and dropped out of school because he needed to work to support the family. Pony is 14 and is an A student at school he likes to watch the sunset and is the narrator of this book.
The Greasers are the poorest with not too much money at all. They drive fords and are much more laid back than the Socs. Greasers commit petty crimes and sometimes more serious ones. Greasers have long hair which they take great pride in; the Greasers wear older clothes and normally smoke far too much. The Greasers fight fair “Skin fighting isnt rough. It blows of steam better than anything.” (p37) Greasers usually stick together but sometimes they cant help throwing a punch or two.
Socs are rich they have all the money and all the (cool) stuff. The Socs drive Mustangs and wear Madras ski jackets; they have social clubs and beat up people for the fun of it. Socs fight dirty and they drink and fight amongst themselves. They are the devils of society then its saviours. They are the presidents and the politicians when they get old and when there young, they get in trouble for crime and abuse.
“Ill bet you watch sunsets, too.” I nodded. “I used to watch them, too, before I got so busy” (p50) Cherry Valance (a socy cheerleader) and Pony boy both watch the same sunset. The Socs and the Greasers both live in Tulsa. Greasers and Socs both are in gangs and even both have partially dysfunctional families.
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton this book is about two different classes of people there are many, many more differences in these classes or social groups than similarities. There still are some things that are the same but they are few and far between. The things that are similar are the things that wouldnt come to mind. eg. Dysfunctional families ect..